Boca Juniors Winter Soccer Camp

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We enrolled all three kids in the Boca Juniors camp taking place on the grounds of the Hotel Buganvilla, here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Boca is the most popular professional soccer club in Argentina with 23 titles.Like their counterparts in Europe, they have developed a regional network of summer camps to develop a fan base. The camp is very low key, with only a few players this week participating. The Bolivian schools are still in session this week and they don’t expect bigger numbers until next week. It will give the boys something to do in the afternoons.

The weather has been as low as 8 degrees celcius (46 F) as June and July are the coldest months for the city. Santa Cruz is 17 degrees south of the equator and firmly in the tropics and much closer to the equator than Miami, but they do get these weather systems coming from Patagonia called “surazos” that bring a damp, cold to the city.
I lived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia from 1997-1999 when I worked as a biology teacher at the Santa Cruz Cooperative School. Coming back to the city always brings back great memories because this is the place where I fell in love with Nadia. We see the places where we first met, the gardens of the Hotel Tajibos where I proposed to her, etc. We have come back every few years since then, the last being in 2007 for the birth of Ocean. The big impression is the incredible growth of the city. The metro area is now up to around 2 million people, that is almost double from when I first arrived in ’97. Most of the growth is internal, as many people are coming from La Paz and Cochabomba. Santa Cruz is the economic capital of the country with lots of jobs in agriculture, petroleum, etc.
We have also noticed a construction boom fueled in part by the increased cocaine trade. The president, Evo Morales, is a former “cocalero” or coca leaf grower, who kicked out the US Drug Enforcement Agency and promoted the planting of coca. He says that coca has many uses including tea, bread, chewing the leaf, etc. Statistics show however, that three times as much land is devoted to coca than the market needs. All that excess coca might be going to illicit drug production and sales. In my opinion, the temporary boost to the economy is good, but with all illegal trade, the violence and crime will soon follow.
I am finally beginning to relax and enjoy time with my family. I’ll try to blog as much as I can about Bolivia and our holidays. Below is the photo of the kids at breakfast the other day.We are trying to improve their Spanish and enjoy the culture and food of Bolivia.

Arrival To Bolivia

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Modesta and Owen, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

After a long trans-Atlantic flight and layover in Sao Paolo, Brazil, we finally arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It was an uneventful flight. We were surprised that we couldn’t leave the airport upon arrival to Brazil because we didn’t have a visa. We had an 8 hour layover and we planned to check into a hotel, but immigration officials wouldn’t allow us pass them. We ended up buying a day pass for the AA Admirals Club and had a nice day together.
Our second night in Santa Cruz was the Festival of San Juan or Corpus Christi. This is a big Catholic holiday here. It is traditionally celebrated with a mass held at the soccer stadium. It coincides with the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. Bolivians have fires in the evening and eat hot dogs and drink singani, the Bolivian rakija (brandy). Tempatures got down to 11 C last night. We cleaned out the BBQ area and had a big fire. The Mayor’s office outlawed individual fires for environmental reasons. Instead, officials organized big public campfires. We told stories and had a nice time.
The origin of the Corpus Christi dates back to 1263 where in Italy, a priest named Pedro de Praga was celebrating mass and the host (communion bread) began to bleed. This is proof of the transformation during the mass the communion bread and wine actually turns into the body and blood of Christ. The host is still preserved and was tested in 1971 as well as blood crystals in the wine. There is human tissue on the host as well as an AB blood type in the wine. I don’t believe it but it does make for an interesting evening in late June.

During the day, we visited the Santa Cruz Zoo. Owen loved seeing the 10 jaguars because earlier this year, he made a poster and gave a presentation on the jaguar. The zoo had a nice collection of Neo-tropic birds and Amazonian fish. The kids also like the spider monkeys with the prehensile tails. We are all still suffering a bit from the jet lag.

Summer Holidays Begin

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Ollie, Ocean, Mom, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Nadia is shown above with the kids at our favorite place for pizza in Belgrade, Brodic. It means “little boat” in Serbian and it is basically a boat and raft, moored along the Sava River, near the Sajam Fair. They serve a sesame seed crust pizza that is absolutely delicious. It is more a hangout place for beers, than a family restaurant, but it has a friendly atmosphere and serves Paulander Wheat Beer, which is a favorite of mine. I highly recommend the “The Pizza Boat” as the expats call it.

We are busy packing for our summer holidays. I’m wrapping things up in the office at school. We bought a new car as our beloved “Eidelweiss” is on her last legs. It is a 2005 Town & Country and it is THE family vehicle. I love that both rows of seats can be stored underneath easily and it is quite luxurious compared to the 1996 Honda we are currently driving. We are trying to figure out a name for the car. The paperwork is taking forever however, and we won’t get our license and registration until we return to Belgrade in August. That is one difficult part of living in Belgrade, sometimes simple things like transferring a car title and registering for a license plates take forever and require several trips to government offices. It is one reason why the economy is bad here, is that it is hard to do simple business transactions because of too much bureaucracy.

The New Ride

I took the kids to the zoo on Sunday while Nadia was getting her hair and nails done. We had a great time. I recommend visiting it with the family. I am ambivalent about zoos. It is good the kids can see the animals and learn about them, but it is basically a prison for animals. The conditions for the animals in the Belgrade Zoo are not great, but in my travels around the world, I’ve seen worse.

Vestiges of Communism in Belgrade

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"The Messenger" - A Sculpture by Stevan Bodnarov

There are reminders of the 50 years of communism all throughout Belgrade. Above is a sculpture by Badnarov, who has several statues around the city including the one in the center of Slavija Circle. The one above is of a Partisan soldier in WW II and it is entitled “The Messenger” but I am not sure what he is referring to. Is there a Paul Revere in Yugoslavia? The work is located outside the Center for Culture and Sport “Šumice” here in Belgrade. Our ISB boys’ basketball team played an exhibition tourney there on Friday. The German School invited us and Public High School #13 to play and they rented the facilities. It was a beautiful basketball arena and there seemed to be some other sport venues in the complex. The Serbians love their sport and it is nice to have such a facility like this owned by the city and open to the public. It had that communist architecture feel to the place. Below is a photo of the gym. I wonder how long it will take to eliminate all signs of the communist era. There are so many cement apartment buildings, parks, and monuments that will remind future generations of that period in Serbia’s history. I like it because it is so different than anything I see in Michigan.

Cooling Off at the Pool

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Yesterday we went over to the Košutnjak Pool which is a large sports complex owned by the city. It is located near the sledding hill in the suburb of Banovo Brdo (Ban’s Hill). It was our first time to pool and we were impressed by the facilities. There were five outdoor pools, restaurants, changing rooms, in a nice woodland setting. It looked very communist, but it was well maintained. The only problem was the 1000 other people enjoying the pool. That is one thing you get in Belgrade during the summer. Any water is just full of people. The kids enjoyed it and it was refreshing. Europeans are in so much better shape than Americans and not as body conscious. There was plenty of flesh of all ages on display. There was a baby pool and it is a nice place for families, although I recommend getting there when is opens at 10:00 AM and leaving around noon when the crowds pull in.

My bow-legs are visible as I dive into the pool

For lunch we went to restaurant nearby for some BBQ lamb and sausages which was delicious. We finished the day with some tennis at the school and saying goodbye to friends who are leaving today for the USA.

 

Farewells

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We had our last Administrative Team meeting at the International School of Belgrade where I work. We meet every Wednesday and other times as needed. We’ve spent many hours around the table in Eric’s office. I’ve appreciated the collaboration of my colleagues and their perspectives, expertise, and different viewpoints, have made me a much better school administrator. I am seated on the far left. To my left in order are the Lower School Principal, Tim M., School Director Eric, S., Business Manager Snežana H., and IT Director, Bane N.
Vicky, Nadia, and Janna

It is the time of year to say goodbye to everyone, some just for the summer holidays and others forever. Our life in international education forces us to have people come and go in our lives. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is strange to get very close to people for several years, and then never see them again. It is impossible to maintain friendships over time and distance.Nadia is above having a coffee with friends Vicky and Janna at the Park Cafe.

Above is a photo of our school’s farewell assembly. We said goodbye to several students and teachers. The ceremony took place in our new amphitheater and it is such a nice setting for public gatherings. We are definitely going to use it more in the future, both for assemblies and outdoor classes.

It is a wrap for another year in education. For teachers, our year doesn’t begin in January, but in August with the start of classes. I am looking forward to upcoming summer holiday. I’ll be spending a few more days wrapping things up in the office and then it will be off to Bolivia. I can’t wait to spend more time with my wife and children, and myself!

School Year Ends

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Ocean, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

With the end of the school year being such a busy time, I’ve had no time to keep up with my blogging. We had our last day of classes yesterday. I’ll be working this week finishing up in the office and then summer holidays!

Ocean is pictured above at last week’s Art Exhibition our school held. Our school is very “hip” and the students exhibited many different mediums of art, including sculpture, digital film, and music. The exhibition was held in the former Military Academy in downtown Belgrade. It is now being turned into a museum and exhibition center after the Serbian army donated the building to the city, It is such a fabulous space to feature student art. As you can see from the photos, the interior of the building is quite striking. The building was damaged twice in WWII and the 1999 NATO bombings.

Oliver and Owen’s art work was featured as well and so I snapped a couple of photos of their work. It was such a nice event for our students and parents and I am happy that ISB supports the fine arts.

Oliver's Sculpture

Sting Performs in Belgrade

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We thoroughly enjoyed attending the Sting concert last night at the Belgrade Arena. Sting is the former lead singer of the Police and is a pop music legend. He is on the second European portion of his long tour promoting his new release, Symphonicities. The real name of Sting is Gordon Sumner and the former British school teacher has been a pop star for 30 years. He looks great at age 58 and his voice and energy is of a man 20 years younger. The idea of the album and concert is to rearrange his songs for a symphony orchestra. I really felt that for most of the songs, it gave them a new life and I found that it brought out his voice more and the story behind each song. It made for a varied evening, with featured players including the trumpet, clarinet, violin, cello, etc. Sting is a true musician and played the guitar, lute, harmonica, among other instruments during the course of the 2-hour, 23 song concert.

I grew up with the Police in the 1980’s and as he has aged and developed more complex musical tastes, I’ve been along for the ride. He is one of the my all-time favorite musicians and it was a great concert. Nadia and I took Owen and he managed to stay up the entire evening. It was the first time we all “partied” together. I hope the exposure to music will inspire him to appreciate music. He is taking guitar lessons. I hope to learn the piano and develop that side of my life.

I would like to thank my friend Claudiu for buying the tickets for us way back in February. The seats were magnificent, near the stage and up above the seats on the floor. With Serbians so tall, it is tough to view a concert if you are a row behind someone. The view was perfect. Nadia kept asking me to dress more like Sting! I’ll post photos tonight when I charge my Blackberry.

The Day at Silver Lake (Srebrno Jezero)

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Sunday we spent the day at Silver Lake. Silver Lake was formed in 1971 when a branch of the Danube was dammed to “protect the Ram marsh from subterranean waters.” It is 14 kilometers long and 300 meters wide. Over the years, people have built vacation homes along the reservoir. A private development company is making a resort with a swimming pool, tennis courts, residences, etc. I like it because it is so close to Belgrade. It is only about an hour drive from the city. It is called Silver Lake because of the sparkles of the water at sunset. It is just south east of Belgrade, and Romania is just across the river. 
We had a great day! We were catching frogs along the banks and kids can spend hours going in and out of the water. The area is not in the big guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Bradt). I found some brochures at the tourist desk at the airport describing tourist spots along the Danube and Silver Lake was featured in the section about the nearby town of Veliko Gradiste. (“big construction site” in Serbian)
Silver Lake is like a cleaner, country version of Ada Ciganlija with much less people.

Book Review of “The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car In History”

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early Zastava Yugo 45, originally uploaded by Yugo Driver.

I just finished reading the book by Jason Vuic, who is a history professor in Virginia. With his last name, he probably has Serbia or Croatia in his ethnic background. The book was okay but not fantastic. It might be that I am not a car fanatic and most of the book dealt with the US side of Yugo. The writing was also a bit dry with lots of stats, but not many interviews with the characters brought up in the book. Vuic could have brought them to life a bit more and I wish he would have had more access to them. It was important however, that the story of Yugo America be published. In the 1980’s, I was in the market for a cheap, entry-level car when the Yugo came out, and I remember the time well. My parents ended up buying me a Ford EXP and then a Ford Escort instead of a Yugo.

I did enjoy parts of the book, especially the sections that dealt with the Zastava plant in Serbia. The plant is located in Kragujevac, which is the “Detroit” of Serbia. When the Americans came over and wanted to import the car, they were shocked at the conditions at the factory. It really gave me insight into the Communist Era of Yugoslavia. The car was basically a cheaply made Fiat car produced by a socialist industrial complex. Of course it was going to fail in the US. It was also interesting to read about the Croatian immigrants in the USA and their protests against the car. They viewed it as a symbol of Serbian and Communist dominance of Croatia. I didn’t know that they actually hijacked a plane in the US to protest the lack of Croatian independence before the break up of communism. It was also interesting to read about Lawrence Eagleburger, the former US Ambassador to Yugoslavia. I was also interested in reading a bit more about the Mackinac Bridge accident. A woman drove off the bridge that separates the two peninsulas of Michigan in 1987 while driving a Yugo.

It would be cool for the school to buy a Yugo. I would paint it blue and gold and attach a dragon’s head and tail to it. We could use it for sporting events, picnic days, etc.